nitzz wrote:
Box office receipts for independent movies for the first half of this year have increased by 20 percent over the total receipts for independent movies for all of last year. Last year, 50 independent movies were released, while so far this year only 20 independent movies have been released. The number of independent movies slated for release in the second half of this year is roughly equal to the number released so far.
If the statements above are true, which of the following must be true?
(A) The total box office receipts for independent movies this year will be significantly more than 20 percent greater than the receipts for independent movies last year.
(B) The number of independent movies released in the first half of this year is equal to the number released in the first half of last year.
(C) The price of a movie ticket has not increased since last year.
(D) The average receipts for the independent films released during the first half of this year is greater than that of all independent films released last year.
(E) The number of people seeing independent movies during the first half of this year is greater than the number who saw independent movies last year.
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
The text tells us that the revenues for independent movies for the first half of this year are already greater than the total revenues for independent movies for all of last year. We are then asked to draw a conclusion based on that information.
(A) There is no way to predict box-office receipts for the year.
(B) There is no way to know how many movies were released in the first half of last year.
(C) We cannot infer that the price of a movie ticket has not increased.
(D) CORRECT. The average revenue per film = total revenues ÷ number of films.
Revenues: We are told that the revenues for independent movies for the first half of this year (say $1000) are already greater than the total revenues for all of last year (say $999).
Number of Films: We know that more independent movies were released last year (say 10) than in the first half of this year (say 9).
We can clearly see that the average revenues per film for independent movies in the first half of this year ($1000 ÷ 9) are greater than the average revenues for all independent movies released last year ($999 ÷ 10).
(E) We cannot infer that more people have seen movies in the first half of this year, even though revenues are higher. It could be, for example, that the same number of people saw movies but ticket prices have risen sharply.